Donald Trump failed to fill his rally arena to over 19,000 attendees, despite boastingly talking about receiving nearly 1 million RSVPs to his Tulsa, Oklahoma rally. This recently concluded event also marked the president's return to the campaign trail.
It looks like a large number of ticket seekers were simply trolling the president as part of stunt created mainly through the Chinese video-sharing platform TikTok. On June 15, Trump took to his Twitter handle to reveal nearly one million people requested tickets for his Saturday night rally in Tulsa.
One local official claimed they are likely to witness 100,000 people showing up near the arena. But much to their chagrin, a lot of registered attendees didn't turn up to fill the BOK Center arena, which allowed rallygoers on a first-come, first-serve basis, and Trump team canceled plans for the president to address people outside the arena.
There was a coordinated effort on TikTok ahead of Trump's Saturday rally that urged people to register for the free event online but to not turn up for it. It is worth noting that TikTok has a reputation for being a platform for dancing teenagers rather than an app for political action.
Speaking to CNN on June 21, Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale noted that Leftists and online trollers are celebrating thinking they affected rally attendance, but they have no idea what they are talking about or how the president's rallies work. When someone registers for a rally, they have RSVPed using a cell phone number that is later weeded out as bogus numbers, and that's what they did with thousands at the Tulsa rally while calculating their possible attendee pool, Parscale explained.
FILE PHOTO: A supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump shoots a video with his mobile phone from the sparsely filled upper decks of the arena as the president addresses his first re-election campaign rally in several months in the midst of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S., June 20, 2020.
Parscale said these fake ticket requests are never included in their thinking. A Trump campaign official had denied that such posts influenced the overall turnout, telling CNN that they had legitimate 300,000 Republicans signups. Adding that these Republicans had voted in the last four elections, the official said those aren't TikTok.
They were concerned about violent protests because of a lack of children and families attending the rally, the official said. While the TikTok effort has primarily involved teens and younger people, a 51-year-old grandmother from Fort Dodge, Iowa seems to have played a key role in urging people to visit Trump's website, register to attend the event, but not attend it.
Laupp encouraged those who want to see the 19,000 seat auditorium barely filled or completely empty to go book tickets and leave Trump standing alone on the stage. She has over 14,000 followers on TikTok.